How Mayawati is trying to remain relevant in 2024 and beyond

New Delhi: As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have turned into a direct fight between NDA and INDIA, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati is fighting a battle for survival while sitting on the fence. And she knows that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will define the future of her party.

The BSP chief made this clear to her top party leaders at a meeting held recently where they were told that the next few months could decide the party’s survival on the national political landscape.

Sources stated that Mayawati has instructed BSP leaders to start preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in various states and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Mayawati discussed party strategy and gave broad guidelines on the outreach programs to be conducted by these leaders.  It is learnt that she has instructed BSP leaders to bring forth before people the brutal incidents of caste oppression happening across the country on Dalits, tribals, poor, labourers and the underprivileged.

The attempt seems to reclaim the party's voter base amongst the backward castes as the party's performance has been bad in the past two Lok Sabha polls.

The BSP managed to win only one of the 403 assembly seats in UP last year. However, it managed to secure the third-highest vote share by bagging 12.9 per cent of the total votes polled. In the 2017 assembly polls, the party had won only 19 seats and had polled over 22 per cent of the total votes cast.

Part of the strategy is to ensure a decent performance in forthcoming Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. BSP has been able to win a handful of seats in all these three states in the past Assembly contests and the party chief hopes that this time also the BSP would be able to win some seats here later this year.

A good performance in these state polls is expected to enthuse the party cadre and help ensure that they consolidate and fight for the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, sources said.

It is understood that party leaders and workers from Uttar Pradesh will be deployed in these assembly polls where the BSP is expected to provide them with necessary training to prepare electorally for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls next year.

Why is BSP desperate to reclaim its foothold in Uttar Pradesh?

BSP is considered to be a party with a strong base amongst the Dalit community in Uttar Pradesh and beyond. The party has been claiming its major share of political power by winning Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

However, its situation has deteriorated over the past decade with no Lok Sabha seat wins and less than adequate performance in the Assembly polls. And Mayawati wants to change this desperately.

The party feels that though its vote percentage has only gone down a bit, its share of seats has been drastically reduced. This is the reason that it wants to consolidate its own vote bank of Dalits. At the same time, the party feels that the Muslim community in the state could go with BSP as it is looking for a strong opposition party to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sources pointed out that Mayawati is trying to wean away the Muslim community from the clutches of the Samajwadi Party over the next few months. This would turn out to be a formidable social engineering attempt, one which was last attempted when Mayawati-led BSP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2007. She was only ousted after this social engineering of Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins was divided by the Samajwadi Party in 2012 when Akhilesh Yadav secured power after the consolidation of the Muslim-Yadav vote bank.

The next few months are expected to bring forth the reality of whether BSP will reclaim its illustrious legacy or falter on its political path.